With influences from his cousins’ garage tapes, to the pop music that dominated the late 90s commercial radio waves, the grime riddims that reverberated across London throughout his childhood and the afrobeats he heard from his Mum’s stereo or at neighbours’ parties, J Hus’ sound is deeply rooted in his experiences growing up in East London.

Against a rising backdrop of haphazard gentrification as the multi-billion dollar Olympic façade changed his hometown forever, and amidst his own struggles with the law and road life, Hus began to weave the sounds of his childhood into his own musical vision. First came Souncloud notoriety, then critical acclaim for the EPs Playing Sports and The 15th Day, as well as chart success with the commercial-leaning single “Lean and Bop”. A time out followed, before that original vision came of age with the release of the album Common Sense last Friday.

Seventeen tracks feature shuffling garage beats, sharp-witted rhymes, afro inflections, live instrumentation, guest spots from MIST, Mo Stack and Burna Boy and enough pop moments that there are multiple candidates for Radio 1 playlists: Hus can make a hook out of anything. Even Ikea instructions. By its end, Common Sense feels like an historical document, a detailed exploration of UK music in 2017, and a procession of bangers in its own right.

As lead single “Did You See” hits the UK top ten, the Common Sense album cover looms over Stratford on a giant billboard and Hus’ famous fisherman hats are popping up across London, we caught with UK music’s self-styled ugly man to talk growing up, being unique and stealing your mate’s fisherman hat.

cream knit BLOOD BROTHER

"I’m everything you’ve heard before but nothing you’ve heard before at the same time. That’s what I do."

Congratulations on Common Sense! People are struggling to define your sound, do you feel like a unique artist?

I feel like I definitely have a sound that no one else has. And it’s still developing as well, I just keep bringing new elements to it. With the album it’s just me doing my own thing. On garage beats, bashment beats, rap beats, any kind of beat. It’s the same kind of beats you’ve heard before but with a different approach to it. I’m everything you’ve heard before but nothing you’ve heard before at the same time. That’s what I do.

Was it always your intention to make a stand out sound?

One hundred percent. When I first started I said I just I wanna sound like myself. That’s why I wanna keep developing it and keep adding new things. I wanna be unique, I wanna stand out, I don’t wanna be like no one else.

Do you recognize the different elements in your sound right now? What were the sounds of your childhood and your teenage years?

The area I’m from – Stratford, East London, it’s so, so diverse, so I grew up around a lot of different people and cultures and backgrounds. Growing up I listened to loads of Michael Jackson and American pop music and then hip-hop like 50 Cent and Grime like Skepta and then lots of bashment and Jamaican music. I had so many Jamaican friends and my Mum would play afrobeats and take me to parties where I’d be around so much African music. I’ve just been around so many different sounds and styles of music. It was crazy. Even my older cousins, they’d be playing old school garage. I just heard everything. And tried to take it all and make something new.

"I remember him saying one thing - that the day he started doing music was the day he became a musician. He left the road, the street, whatever, and just became a proper musician."

Do you still go back to Stratford now? How have things changed for you since then?

Whenever I need haircut and that init, I go back to the barbershop in Stratford and people still come up to me and that. Things have changed though. Today out found out that “Did You See” made the top 10 and we’re A-listed on BBC Radio 1, it’s just crazy. There’s more and more achievements coming and these are the things I wanted init. I always said I would blow up in music and I would come here and go there. But it’s easy saying it. When it happens it’s crazy, you can’t believe it, even if it’s what you always wanted.

You've mentioned before that you felt like "Lean and Bop" was a bit too pop or it was a bit soft. Are you ready and happy to be making hits now?

You know, with “Lean and Bop” the reason is because that’s the only tune I ever forced. I went to the studio and I was like “I wanna make a tune like this or that” because I wanted to be in the charts. All my other tunes are just me going to the studio and doing whatever comes to me. That’s why I felt uncomfortable. On this album I got tunes that are proper mainstream or whatever but it’s just me being me, not forcing it. I just said “let’s do this.” It just can’t be forced, you’ve gotta let it just be natural.

You recently posted on Instagram that you’d been in Nigeria with Skepta and he’d given you some advice while you were together. What did he say?

He just spoke to me and sat me down and kept telling me “Just do you and be as UK as possible and just represent you.” He was saying that anything in the past, you just let it go. Coming from him it was amazing because I grew up on him. And being sat there with him he recognized me and he knows who I and he appreciates my music, that’s crazy. When you listen to Skepta it’s like he’s talking to you directly. I feel like I do that as well. With my lyrics I try to say things and speak to the listener directly, especially on this album I do that a lot.

"I always said I would blow up in music and I would come here and go there. But it’s easy saying it. When it happens it’s crazy, you can’t believe it, even if it’s what you always wanted."

The difficult parts of your story make you unique artist when it comes to giving advice or helping other people through. Will you be passing something on for emerging artists as well?

Of course, of course. It’s the same kind of message that Skepta gave to me – just focus on the music init. I remember him saying one thing – that the day he started doing music was the day he became a musician. He left the road, the street, whatever, and just became a proper musician. When it comes to all the other artists coming up, I’ve learned so much in the last two or three years and there’s so much advice I can give. I should really get in to managing and that when I’m done.

What were you writing on the album, what was inspiring you during the writing of Common Sense?

When I make music, I can only write about my experiences. If I’m just locked away in the studio for a whole month I wouldn’t get that much, maybe just one or two tunes. I gotta get out there, go live and then come back and write init. With this album what I tried to do was let them know that J Hus has grown up, it’s a more grown up sound. Just putting my messages in there, inspiring the youth. It’s about just making it diverse and bringing more and more different sounds but keeping in there what people love me for already – that afro sound and the rap.

It’s crazy. It proper started to pop off in the UK maybe in 2013 or 2014 and it started rising and rising. Then when I heard Drake jump on Wizkid’s “Ojuelegba” I was like “wow, this is mad.” I was talking to Skepta – and obviously this is really for him to say init – but when I was in Nigeria with him he was saying that him and Drake could have done so many tunes, any tune they wanted, but they wanted to do the tune with Wizkid and put Nigeria and African culture and the afro sound out there. Skepta played a big part in that. It’s a sick sound, I like it a lot.

It feels like British artists are really celebrating Africa and African heritage right now...

Yeah yeah, it’s true. Back in school to be called African was a diss. The change is crazy, you know what I mean? People are proud to be African, all of us are proud. Everyone is just embracing it, that’s a really true statement. The image that people got of Africa back then was not right. It was because of what they show on TV – little kids with flies on their faces asking for £2 a month. But now, people are seeing we make good music, we live life and are happy people.

Can you talk to us about your hat? “Fisherman” is it a track about the hat?

Haha, yeah it is. The thing is I had a studio session with Mo Stack. He came with MIST from Birmingham and we were all in the studio. I had already stole this fisherman hat from my friend init. It’s a glow in the dark fisherman hat and I loved it. When I first saw it I was like “I’m taking this hat” so I took it off him and was just rolling round with it for time. I would never take it off, I just loved it. But anyway, we were just chilling in the studio tryna make a track and MIST and Mo Stack were in the corner init just bouncing off each other, tryna get a vibe. I was like, “I’m gonna let them do their own thing, then I’m gonna come in my own way” so they done a little bar and I thought, you know what, I’m gonna approach this with a hook. I just said whatever was on my mind. I was like, “You see me hop out the minivan // you never see the way I came // looking like a fisherman.” It’s a tune init…